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Sunday, April 02, 2006
Not law but interesting - NCAA Leadership Isn't Matching the Talent of Its Women Players
Yesterday's Men's Final Four games were a disappointment. Tonight Women's games should prove a lot more exciting, despite the inept NCAA. Here is a great article in today's Washington Post by columnist Sally Jenkins, headlined "NCAA Leadership Isn't Matching the Talent of Its Players." Some quotes from an article that deserves reading in full, if you are a sports fan:
Get the biddies out of women's basketball. The game has come too far, too fast, to be held back now by a bunch of blue hairs. Yet as the Final Four gets underway, the unfortunate fact is that the players running the floor are light years ahead of the archaic people who are running the sport. * * *The first thing the NCAA needs to do is hire an entirely new set of officials. The same amateurish, slow-footed crews show up every year and make the same incoherent calls. They allow post players to maul each other at one end of the floor, and then whistle a hand-check on the other end. In the region final between Tennessee and Carolina, the crew couldn't even keep track of the possession arrow on jump balls. Hatchell found herself imploring the refs, "Please don't penalize us for our athleticism."
The second thing the NCAA needs to do is fire the entire women's tournament selection committee and start fresh. For far too long the committee has been dominated by aging gym teachers and administrative hacks whose qualifications are questionable at best, and who seem more concerned with status than fairness. * * *
Until the more calcified members of the committee are shown the door, real change may be impossible. Good luck in prying them out of their seats. A major problem coaches have with the committee is that no one is sure how the members got their places on it. The process is secretive, and, one suspects, highly politicized too. "It's a mystery to us," Coale says.
A quick look at the committee makeup provokes the question, who are these people? The committee chair is American University Athletic Director Joni Comstock -- a former volleyball coach. Then there is Duke associate athletic director Jaclyn Silar -- a former field hockey coach. Other members include Cindy Hartmann, an associate athletic director from the University of Dayton; Tina Cheatham, an associate commissioner of the Southland Conference; and Sandra Booker, an assistant athletic director for academics from Bethune-Cookman.
Compare that with the makeup of the men's NCAA committee. "Look at the difference in backgrounds and responsibilities," says Coale, "and you see some subtleties."
Actually, what you see is a laughable difference in quality. The men's committee is populated entirely by top-tier athletic directors and commissioners, all of them with deep basketball knowledge and business experience. * * *
The good news is that the blue-haired bureaucrats haven't prevented the players from expanding their games. With every Final Four, the quality of play continues to improve exponentially. Women are getting off the floor and up around the rim. Now it's time to find some officials and administrators who want to go there with them.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 2, 2006 10:19 AM
Posted to General News